On the plane back from last week’s U.S. National Nanotechnology Coordinating Office-sponsored workshop on ethics and nanotechnology, I dug into the report “Health and Nanotechnology: Economic, Societal, and Institutional Impact” (not on web, as far as I can tell). This was the result of a meeting sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the… Continue reading Nanotechnology prof boggles nano community
Regular readers of Nanodot know that we rarely use this space to “bleg” (i.e., request donations via blog). We make an exception for our annual $40,000 Challenge Grant, during which your donations are doubled. As this is posted, we have about $30,000 to go. Take each example below and multiply the payoff by two —… Continue reading Deadline to double nanotechnology impact: this Sunday
Switzerland’s Centre for Technology Assessment has issued its report Public Reactions to Nanotechnology in Switzerland (428 KB pdf), and — not surprisingly — it’s relatively balanced. From page 33 (page 35 of pdf file): “There’s a good and a bad side to everything” — This saying sums up quite well the way that the publifocus… Continue reading Sensible Swiss views on nanotechnology benefits, downsides
Red Herring reports that the city of Berkeley, California, has voted to approve its own nanoparticle regulations: On Tuesday night the Berkeley, California City Council passed an ordinance to regulate the use of manufactured nanoparticles, tiny subatomic [sic] materials that can be 100,000 times smaller than the width of human hair… Now the city will… Continue reading Nanotechnology regulations at city level: Unhelpful
Cognitive enhancement technologies already exist — if you drink coffee, you’re a user — so it seems likely that nanotechnology will eventually be used for this purpose. A new report (pdf) from the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes at ASU summarizes the results of a workshop on this topic held with Sandia. They identified… Continue reading Nanotechnology for cognitive enhancement: okay or not
Funded by the European Commission, the Nanologue project has released its report titled The future of nanotechnology: We need to talk. It presents three scenarios: Scenario 1: Disaster recovery A lack of regulation resulted in a major accident. Public concern about nanotechnology is high and technology development is slow and cautious. Scenario 2: Now we’re… Continue reading Nanotechnology scenarios from Europe's Nanologue
A new book by German physicist Jürgen Altmann of Dortmund University looks at Military Nanotechnology: Potential Applications and Preventive Arms Control (Routledge, 2006). Both near-term and long-term applications are examined. From the abstract: NT applications will likely pervade all areas of the military…By using NT to miniaturise sensors, actuators and propulsion, autonomous systems (robots) could… Continue reading Facing up to military nanotechnology
Earth & Sky interviewed yours truly on the topic of nanotechnology surveillance and nanoprivacy. It looks as though there are both a transcript and a couple of podcasts (1, 2). Excerpts: Nanotechnology will produce new sensors that can analyze chemical signals in our environment. And of course, we as individuals send off chemical signals that… Continue reading Nanotechnology surveillance & privacy: an interview
Foresight members and others would like to find ways to use nanotechnology to help those who need help the most. It’s a challenge, as described more generally by Nancy Birdsall, Dani Rodrik, and Arvind Subramanian, writing in Foreign Affairs. They suggest a solution, which ought to work for nanotech as well as medical technologies: Wealthy… Continue reading Helping poor countries with nanotechnology
Nanowerk reports that the German branch of Friends of the Earth (BUND) is calling for Samsung to withdraw from the market its washing machine using silver nanoparticles: …BUND criticized that considerable amounts of silver could enter sewage plants and seriously trouble the biologic purification process of the waste water. In addition, silver nanoparticles were blaimed… Continue reading Common sense about Samsung silver nanotechnology
